Cyberbullies go catfishing.

• Author: Greenberg, Pam
• Position: TRENDS

Catfish are easy to farm and a popular inexpensive and safe food. But in Oklahoma, and about a dozen other states, catfishing can get you in trouble.

The kind of catfish states like Oklahoma are eyeing are cyberbullies who steal others' identities and likenesses off the internet. They create entirely fictitious online personas who lure unsuspecting users into online romances or who create those profiles to harass, intimidate or threaten.

Oklahoma law defines this kind of scammer as someone who uses social media to grab a person's name, voice, signature, photograph or likeness without the person's consent, to create a false identity, for the purpose of harming, intimidating, threatening or defrauding that person. The law allows victims to seek an automatic injunction and money damages. To address First Amendment concerns, the law specifically excludes online parodies or satire. It also does not apply to law enforcement agencies or officials investigating online crimes.

Many states have criminal impersonation laws that potentially could apply to online impersonation. However, at least 12 other states have laws that criminalize electronic impersonation of another person with the intent to obtain a benefit or to injure or defraud another. Also, at least six states include online impersonation in cyberbullying laws. Internet impersonation bills were introduced this year in at least six states. The Oklahoma law, however, is the first to address...